City bills woman $650 for lawn mowing

UPI News Service, 06/23/2011

A Pennsylvania woman who moved out of her Phillipsburg house due to a pending divorce said the city cut the grass on the property and billed her $650.

ADVERTISEMENT

Nicole Hodgskin, who left her home a month ago when she and her husband split, told the Phillipsburg Council Tuesday she had thought her husband was still living at the residence and taking care of the grass, The (Easton, Pa.) Express-Times reported Thursday.

"We've received lots of complaints from neighbors about your lawn and sent out a notice," Mayor Harry Wyant told Hodgskin at the meeting. "Ten days after the notice the grass wasn't cut, so we cut the grass."

Wyant said the bill was so high because the workers doing the mowing received overtime pay.

"Based on the amount of employees and rain, we had to do our work orders on an overtime basis," Wyant said. "We also had to move debris from the property."